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Friday, June 05, 2009

Sponsor patches? We don't need no stinkin' patches!

Here's one of those ideas that you just knew was going to raise its ugly head sooner or later: sponsor patches on player jerseys.

Company logos are so prevalent on some athletic jerseys -- notably those outside the good ol' USA -- that you have a hard time sometimes actually knowing what the name of the team is (OK, that would really likely be more due to the fact that you are only an occasional viewer of that particular sport, but you get my point). Women's pro basketball in the U.S., though, is one of the latest to fall prey to this advertising onslaught.

But now...now!...our esteemed National Football League has deemed it suitable for teams to sell sponsor spaces on teams' practice jerseys. Not game jerseys. Practice jerseys. It's all about the money, of course. Wanting to maximize revenue opportunities. And who really sees practice jerseys anyway? Well, yeah, all those folks who show up during summer training camp, I guess. But since most teams also sell replica practice jerseys, are you going to want to pay to walk around promoting not only the Packers -- which is absolutely the whole point, right?! -- but, say, Ed's Cheese-a-rama & Bait Emporium (which, I highly recommend if you stumble on it in the great north woods, by the way...just kidding...but I wouldn't be surprised if there's one up there somewhere, either).

Thus begins the slippery slope: today, the practice jerseys are for sale and tomorrow the game jerseys are for sale. Do you want to see the beloved Green 'n' Gold jersey pimped out to the highest bidder? Not me.

But regrettably, the Packers are already looking into the practice jersey sponsor possibility. (Sigh) You can read more about this move here.